Catholic Traveller is back on the road! We're visiting missions, shrines and more, hoping to motivate and encourage you to make pilgrimage part of your life. Come along as we roam the country in our travel trailer, by train and by plane. Buen camino!

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Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Santo Nino de Atocha, Chimayo, New Mexico

On the same road trip to El Santuario,
Chimayo, we discovered another chapel I hadn't seen before. Just a few hundred yards from El Santuario is the Chapel to Santo Nino de Atocha. According to legend, when loved ones were imprisoned, the Christ child would come and take food and water to them. When the families saw the worn out shoes on the statue of little Jesus, they would replace them with new ones, which would soon become worn out as well, as Santo Nino continued to bring provisions to their imprisoned loved ones.

Santo Nino de Atocha Chapel is dedicated to children. Its
whimsical décor is reminiscent of childhood, with carved trees, birds, flowers
and fanciful sculptures. A nearby shrine holds hundreds of pairs of tiny shoes,
thank you tokens for miracles received. A Milagros chapel inside the shrine
holds hundreds of other tiny gifts, left in gratitude for healings received.

During WWII, many National Guardsmen from this area of New Mexico died. Survivors attributed their lives to the intercession of Santo Nino de Atocha. Devotion to Jesus as Santo Nino had been encouraged by Severiano Medina, who built the chapel near El Santuario, in gratitude for healing from a severe illness.

Today, the chapel is fully restored and a delightful dessert to the serious meal of El Santuario de Chimayo. One does not have to walk very far from either one for some distinctive New Mexico chile.

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